Chrome Extensions

WhatFont

WhatFont is a chrome extension that tells you what fonts are used on the page. When you hover over an element on a page, it'll show you the name of the font. This plugin is designed for the use of designers who want to use a font that they find on a website somewhere.

To use the plugin, you simply click on the WhatFont icon, and now wherever you hover, you'll see the font used in that element.

This extension is very easy to use. I didn't need any instruction, it just worked. I would definitely recommend this plugin to anyone who finds themselves working with fonts.

HTTPS Everywhere

My next extension is HTTPS Everywhere. It does exactly what it sounds like: it makes sure you have an HTTPS connection on every site. This means that all information you send back in forth is in the Secure Socket Layer, so it's encrypted.

There's not much to say about this plugin, once it's installed, your information is protected from anyone trying to spy on you.

This extension doesn't take any learning. Even if someone doesn't know what SSL is, they'll still understand that this plugin helps protect their information.

LastPass

LastPass is a password protection service. With the extension installed, you have an easy way to store your passwords for a variety of sites. Your passwords are encrypted, so this is useful for anyone who's concerned about their security while browsing the web.

LastPass has many features, but it's easy to get started with storing passwords. You can simply add a new password with the plugin and use it the next time you visit the site.

LastPass is very easy to use, the developers made sure to make instructions easy to find and made the program very functional.

End of Year Reflection: Web Design

What Did I Take Away?

Technology

Technology is my biggest strength in eComm. I work with computers very well and I'm always learning new things. My skills with HTML, CSS, and the likes have grown since the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year, I didn't have a great understanding on how webpages worked. I have a much better understanding now, and would consider my work up to industry standards. With technology, I learn best with experience.

Collaboration

There isn't a lot of room for collaboration in web design, but I would say that I collaborate by working with others and getting help when I need it, or returning that help.

Communication

In eComm, communication is key. I communicate with Mr. Olson when I have questions about web design. Sometimes my computer may be acting up, or my code may be buggy, but with communication, I can have those problems fixed.

Project Management

I'd say my project management is fairly strong. Intend to get stuff in on time, although sometimes I think that I spend way too much time trying to make my projects something they don't need to be, for example, with my CSS Transition project, I was originally gonna do something completely different and harder than what was assigned. I wasted a lot of time on this, and it was turned in late.

Leadership

I like to exercise my leadership whenever I can. I think it's one of the most important guarantees that eComm offers. I try to show leadership by helping out my classmates when they need it. I have put a lot of time into web design outside of school, so I like to use my skills to help people who don't understand it as well as I do.

Strengths and Weaknesses

My biggest strength in eComm is my technology usage by far. I have really developed my skills when working with the coding languages we use. I've definitely improved on this throughout the year as well, this is due to the amount of time I've spent working with them. However, there's always more to learn, like PHP and MySQL. These languages are a lot different than HTML and CSS, so it's going to be a big challenge.

A weakness for me would probably be my communication skills. Although I feel like they have improved, I feel like I need to reach out more. I can do this by pushing myself to do it more next year.

APPLYING WHAT I'VE LEARNED

I think the skills I've learned will prove to be very valuable. I use my web design skills all the time in other aspects of my life, for example, I entered a portfolio in eMagine this year, and got second place.

CHANGES?

I don't think there's anything I would really change. eComm provides a great environment to grow one's skills. I really like how open-ended it is, and how it doesn't hold back people that are more advanced or leave behind anyone who doesn't quite get it. Everyone improves their skills all the time, and I really like that about eComm.

IN SUMMARY

In summary, eComm is a great learning experience. I'm glad that I have this opportunity, as my skills have grown immensely, and I feel like it has better prepared me for my future. The skills I learn in eComm prove to be very useful in other aspects of life, and I find myself applying them all the time. I love seeing the products that I have learned to produce, and how they've kept improving ever since I joined eComm.

End of Year Reflection: Graphic Design

What did I takeaway?

Technology

Technology is one of my biggest strengths in eComm. I know the programs that we work with very well and I'm always learning new things. My skills with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator have definitely improved since the beginning of the year. At the beginning of the year, we worked on simpler projects, like the Postcard, but now I'm able to complete big projects like the Branding project. With technology, I learn best with experience, the more I work with a program, the more comfortable I am with it.

Collaboration

When collaborating in graphic design, we give each other critiques on our work. I'm very proud of my Infographic, I think it turned out really well, and this is in part to the feedback I received. It's always good to have someone else's input as they might see something that I don't. I try to help out the creators as much as I can, because I know that they also appreciate feedback. Critique's are very important when designing something.

Communication

Communication in eComm is another important factor. Communication is essential to being a successful employee. I try to enhance my communication skills by asking someone for advice when I'm stuck on something, whether it's design advice, or technology issues. For example, with the Branding project, I struggled with coming up with symbols that fit my brand well. But after talking to a few different people, I was able to get the ball rolling again. Effective communication boosts productivity by a lot.

Project Management

My project management skills have grown a lot. At the beginning of the year, I was kind of behind on projects like the Vectored Face project. As time went on, I was getting my stuff done sooner. I was able to complete the Branding project a day before it was officially due, in contrast to the Vector Face which was a few days late. This is in part to my increased technological skills, and also my improved creativity. Project management is extremely important, if you don't get stuff done on time, you're hurting yourself. If employees are behind on projects, they're going to upset clients and it will hurt their reputation.

Leadership

I use my leadership skills in graphic design to help my peers out with projects. For example, at the beginning of the year when everyone else was still learning Illustrator and Photoshop, I already had some experience and was able to spend more of my time helping others out with things they didn't understand. I hope I could help people a lot, because I know if I was struggling with something, I'd be more than willing to accept help in order to have a better project. Leadership is important because it helps everyone grow.

Strengths/Weaknesses

My biggest strength in eComm is my technology usage by far. I have really developed my skills when working with the all the programs. I've definitely improved on this throughout the year as well, this is due to the amount of time I've spent working with them. However, there's always more to learn, like new features I've never used before. These programs have a lot to offer in them, so it can be challenging to learn every aspect about them.

A weakness for me would probably be my communication skills. Although I feel like they have improved, I feel like I need to reach out more. I can do this by pushing myself to do it more next year.

Applying What I've Learned

I think the skills I've learned will prove to be very valuable. I use my graphic design skills all the time in other aspects of my life, for example, I'm able to make presentations that look very nice in my AP European History class. With good design skills, I'm able to present information in a more effective manner than I would have if I just through the text on the screen. Now I know how to pick good colors, fonts that serve my purpose well, along with other things.

Changes?

I don't think there's anything I would really change. eComm provides a great environment to grow one's skills. I really like how open-ended it is, and how it doesn't hold back people that are more advanced or leave behind anyone who doesn't quite get it. Everyone improves their skills all the time, and I really like that about eComm.

In Summary

In summary, eComm is a great learning experience. I'm glad that I have this opportunity, as my skills have grown immensely, and I feel like it has better prepared me for my future. The skills I learn in eComm prove to be very useful in other aspects of life, and I find myself applying them all the time. I love seeing the products that I have learned to produce, and how they've kept improving ever since I joined eComm.

Using Dreamweaver's Templates

This project as us working with one of the templates Dreamweaver has to offer. Instead of designing and coding the page from scratch like we have been, most of the designing was done for us, we just had to put the information in ourselves. A downside to this is that I had a hard time understanding what was going on in the code without careful examination. I know that nowadays, with websites as complicated as they are, it's often not worth the web designers time to design something from scratch. This is why companies like WordPress exist. WordPress offers thousands of different templates to choose from and requires next to no coding on the user's part. I would personally prefer to design my own templates so I understand what's going on in the webpage.

Responsive Design Overview

Responsive design is the practice of making your website adjust to the varying screen sizes of the website's viewers. This is important because people use their phones as much as they use full sized computers. Viewing a website designed for a different screen size can hurt the website's functionality by making it harder to read or use. I incorporated responsive design into my website in order to make it more usable on mobile. I did this by making the text larger relative to the screen on smaller screen. In addition, I made the array of projects have fewer columns on smaller screens.

On the desktop version of my website, we can see that the text on my splash page takes up about a third of the screen width. This looks really nice when viewed on a larger screen, but if it were to take up a third of a smartphone screen, it may become hard to read.

By using media queries, I changed the text so that it would use nearly 100% of the screen width. This works well on a small screen, but if it took up a 100% on desktop, it would be annoying to read.

Responsive Design

Responsive design in websites is when the website you're viewing adjusts to the screen size in order to convey the message most effectively across devices. The amount of people viewing websites on mobile devices is increasing, so now it's important to account for desktop and mobile users. The best way to do this in web design is by using media queries. Media queries can be used to apply certain CSS styles only when the viewing width of the page fits within the limits of the media query. When developing a responsive design, you have to pay attention to breakpoints. You can find breakpoints by slowly decreasing your window's width until the elements on the page don't look like they should. This is where you insert a media query. By continuously finding and fixing breakpoints, you can make a website responsive.

This is a screenshot from the laptop version of Papa John's site. This screenshot has the most information on the page as possible.

When shrunk down to the tablet size, the site retains most of the same elements. One change is the removal of the promo code bar and the reduced size of the shopping cart button.

Finally, the smallest version has a hamburger menu which you can expand to see the remaining navbar content. The splash content was also reorganized to move the text under the picture instead of covering it in order to use the space most effectively.

Marks and Symbols

In the world of graphic design, marks are used frequently. There are different classifications of marks, and we learned how to distinguish between them today. The first type of mark is the symbol. Symbols are marks without type that identify a group and can be legally protected. These make a quick impact, however they have to be explained due to the lack of type explaining the mark. Pictographs are public symbols able to be used by all. These are often associated with public safety. Lettermarks are letters used to identify a company that aren't pronounceable. These are often shortened versions of a longer name. Logos are words that represent a company but are pronounceable. Combination marks are a combination of a symbol and logo, also called signature. Finally,we have trademarks. All of the previously mentioned marks qualify to be trademarks. Trademarks are the legal name for unique mark. These can be registered and protected by the law.

The difference between a symbol and a logo is that a logo uses type to represent a company, and a symbol represents the company without any type. When the two of these are used together, a combination mark is created.

I learned that there is a difference between a logo and symbols. I had never paid any attention to the distinguishing factors between these. I also had never realized that lettermarks were separate from logos as well. In addition, pictographs were new to me. I didn't know that there were separate names for symbols not protected by the law.

My favorite thing I learned would just be learning the classifications in general. I feel like this would be useful when working with clients and designing the right type of mark for them.